1. STO vs BMs  

Clarity on the characteristics of STOs and BMs. STOs being measurable, intermediate steps and BMs are like major milestones to indicate progress within a specific time-frame. The similarity is where the final steps in either STO and BMs to be integrated as the last step before the annual goal accomplishment.  

2. The importance of incorporating STOs and BMs into IEPs. This is to ensure all stakeholders involved in the IEP, (i.e student, parents, school personnel etc) are able to monitor the student's progress throughout the year. Additionally, I think that progress monitoring provides a sense of ownership to everyone in the IEP team, working towards the same annual goal.

Assistance – the type/level of support the child receives as they work towards the goal set. (E.g., graphic organizer, to complete ___ independently, cue cards, etc). Assistance can fade over time to monitor the child’s independency. 

Directions/instructions – how the child completes the assessments and what type of intervention was used to move them to achieving the IEP Goal. (E.g., explicit instructions on ______, “show all your work when solving the problems”, etc). The directions will allow stakeholders make appropriate interpretations when comparing scores with benchmark tables.

1) Short – Term Objectives (STO): We set achievable targets for the student to taste success before we increase the challenge (higher targets). Setting the goals small allows the child to work in a slow and steady momentum and not be overwhelmed by the need to “catch up” with their peers which causes anxiety and low self-confidence.

2) There are 3 components in the performance criteria (Degree). First, the criterion level. This is important when setting a goal in an IEP. It is measurable and specific. Second, the number of times the child should demonstrate that level. We want the child to be able to remember and apply the knowledge and skills taught in their education journey (or life journey for Social Skills). Therefore, it is necessary that we know how consistent the child is and monitor if they have mastered what has been taught. Third, the evaluation schedule. This will help the teachers to evaluate their instructional planning and provides information to other stakeholders on the mastery of the intervention planned. 

2) The difference between Benchmarks and STOs are that, the former defines major milestones and the latter defines measurable, intermediate steps. STOs aid in dividing annual goals into separate skill components whereas Benchmarks describes the amount of progress a student has to make within a specified time frame.

-  The SMART acronym will serve as a guide for educators to come up with specific, measurable and realistic goals with action verbs. Action verbs has to be observable and measurable. Some examples of action verbs would be: answer verbally, point to, verbally request, maintain appropriate, count money, etc.

2.      I also learned how to identify a good PLOP.

3.      I learned the difference between Short -term objectives (STO) vs benchmark.  STO occurs when annual goals can be broken down into individual skill components. Benchmarks refers to the progress a student has to make within a certain time-frame. 

4.      I feel setting SMART goals for the student highly motivate the student to perform better, looking and charting their own progress will also inspire them further.

To individualize the IEP goals, collecting data to understand the students’ strengths, interest and needs within each domain is the foundation of IEP. Data reported on students’ present level of performance (PLOP) includes quantitative and qualitative data. With these data, we can picture the student’s strength and needs to establish SMART IEP goals and choose appropriate intervention. 

 

2)      Vocabulary and spelling present special problem for writing short term objectives. The purpose of learning spelling and vocabulary is to enlarge the pool of words that students can spell or use while writing or speaking. There is possibility for overlap across the goal and objectives. I learnt that I can control some of the overlap by developing rules for selecting words for each tests. This will ensure long term mastery and helps integrate the various spelling skills. (For example: words spelled wrongly are automatically included on the next test)

 

1.     Short-Term Objectives (STOs) can be developed by dividing annual goals into discrete skill components such as expressing comprehension in Mathematics and reading as discrete skills (Double-digit addition with carrying, literal comprehension, sequential comprehension, inferential comprehension. Conversely, grade-level reading performance using leveled readers are milestones. Each benchmark level signifies a milestone for the student. 

 

2.     In determining the number of (STOs) or Benchmarks to fulfil the goal for each student, we need to consider at least two factors – 1) Consider how long it has taken to teach the targeted skills to previous students; 2) Consider how long it has taken to teach this student other skills previously. Then, we need to estimate what we can accomplish in one reporting period then evaluate the student’s ability and increase or decrease what should be accomplished or make no change in the (STOs) or benchmark.

 

Materials involve each student’s strengths, needs and the contexts that the student performs target skills that encourages his/her successful task completion.  It also includes assessments completed by the student to measure skill performance in terms of levels and types. For instance, fifth and second-grade Mathematics assessments differ by the types of problems, which helps to track student’s progress and eliminates ambiguity.

 

Assistance is the number, type and level of supports that the student received as he/she completes skills. By specifying that a task is completed independently in an IEP goal specifies the level of assistance. Other forms of assistance include verbal prompting by teachers, cue cards, hand over hand assistance, calculators, checklists. Assistance levels allows teachers to make IEP goals measurable and give evidence of the student’s progress towards independence. For instance, when a student is doing a writing task, the number of prompts required decreases over time. 

 

Directions/Instructions can include how the student will complete certain assessment and the type of intervention used to help him/her progress in achieving the IEP goal. For instance, for a writing task, the directions can be “plan for 1 minute and write for 3 minutes”. Professionals can also compare the scores such as writing scores against benchmarks to make appropriate interpretations for future planning. 

a)     Provide clear guidelines for positive outcomes for SEN students.

b)    Provide clear monitoring of student progress or lack of progress.

c)     Communicate expectations to parents, teachers and therapists about the knowledge and skills students need to acquire.

 

2)    The two strategies for writing STO or benchmarks are :

a)     Arrange skills in sequential order; students must complete the objectives in sequence to accomplish the final goal.

b)    Target important skills in the areas such as social skills, school survival skills, study skills, or daily skills. The goals do not need to be completed in order.

1) Benchmarks are distinct from short-term objectives (STOs). STOs and benchmarks both must be measurable, however, benchmarks include specific timeframes that the student should be able to achieve. 

2) Annual goals, objectives, STOs, and benchmarks should be clearly and precisely stated. The objectives should provide a detailed basis for monitoring the progress of students. We can write clear goals or objectives by using essential parts, which include the following: Condition, Student, observable behaviours and performance criteria (degree).